verklingen

^ that's why i don't understand how scientists can use red shift to determine that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate. wouldn't a red shift only indicate that it was expanding at an increasing rate however long ago in the past that the distance between us and the observed object causes our perception of it to shift toward the red? think about it. the universe could slow its expansion (assuming there's enough matter out there to do so) and we wouldn't be able to tell until an incredible amount of time had passed. . . much longer than the current estimated age of our universe when taking into account what distance the light from such a decelerating object must travel to reach us, and compounding that by accounting for the increasing amount of space which continues to expand between us and it. given the principle you've described i don't see how red shift can be used to determine much of anything about the current state of our universe.

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